So far, my journey to reconciliation has been about recognizing and acknowledging my white privilege. In life, my path has had no obstructions caused by my race, and it has been fairly easy to navigate. By painting this path, I visually recognize that my life has been made easier due to my white privilege. Meanwhile, the Indigenous path is full of obstacles caused by European settlers. It is very difficult to navigate this path. The line separating the two paths is fractured at the top, and as it goes down, the line mends. The line represents my journey to reconciliation, and it is orange for Orange Shirt Day. My painting is a visual way of acknowledging my white privilege.
Snippet from my Journey to Reconciliation Paper
As a future teacher, I will recognize the calls to action and acknowledge in two ways, verbal and visual. For verbal acknowledgement, I will give a land acknowledgement each morning in my classroom as I will be teaching on treaty territory, and since I am of European ancestry, I am an uninvited guest on this stolen land (Bearhead, 2015, para. 12). Also, I will learn some different Indigenous languages and dialects, as well as a song or two, so I can honour Indigenous people in my classroom, and I will create an environment of invitation and hospitality. Further, I will visually acknowledge the “truth, territory and people” (Bearhead, 2015, para. 14). I will acknowledge the people of the territory, as well as acknowledge the wrongs done by education in the past. These will be visual acknowledgments in my classroom in the form of posters and pictures. Further, in the classroom, I am going to be conscious of my white privilege, and I am going to make sure Indigenous people are acknowledged and respected in my classroom. My students will know about Indigenous backgrounds, and they will be taught about the history of the Indigenous culture and the wrongs done by European settlers, including residential schools. Also, they will be taught about reconciliation. As a future educator, I have a responsibility and a great role in aiding reconciliation because I am influencing the minds of young children.
References
Bearhead, C. (2015, November 25). 94 Calls to Action, 3 ways to get started. Illuminate. https://illuminate.ualberta.ca/content/94-calls-action-3-ways-get-started
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